The Ohio Statehouse in Columbus. (Submitted photo)
State budget spares schools, housing
- Published: July 10, 2025
Late Monday, June 30, Gov. Mike DeWine signed the state’s $60 billion, two-year budget and issued a slate of 67 line-item vetoes — including several that will, for now, keep YS Schools and public school districts across the state from major financial upheaval.
At the same time, the finalized version of the budget bill sent to Gov. DeWine late last week preserves the Ohio Housing Trust Fund, a vital source of funding for affordable housing nonprofit YS Home, Inc. and housing initiatives across the state.
The News has reported on both issues in recent months; the budget bill, as initially drafted, included widespread changes to school funding and a provision to dismantle the Housing Trust Fund’s primary funding mechanism — moves that were decried by village advocates and leaders.
Though Gov. DeWine issued more vetoes with this budget than he ever has since taking office in 2019, the budget still includes measures that advocates across the state hoped he would remove — including using $600 million in unclaimed funds to finance a Cleveland Browns stadium and an income tax cut for the state’s wealthiest earners.
At the same time, bucking conservative trends, Gov. DeWine removed from the budget provisions that would have required public libraries to place materials referencing “sexual orientation or gender” out of sight and would have withheld funding from youth homeless shelters offering gender-affirming practices.
School districts spared
Among the education-related provisions DeWine struck from the budget was a measure that would have forced school districts to cap end-of-year operating fund reserves at 40% and return any excess to taxpayers. A similar measure earlier in the legislative process set that cap at 30%.
YS Schools leaders were among those who argued the cap would punish responsible fiscal planning. As the News reported in May, a document prepared by Superintendent Terri Holden and Treasurer Jacob McGrath and shared with state legislators noted that the proposal would “discourage responsible financial management” and “make long-term planning difficult,” and would likely require districts to return to voters with levies more often.
The governor also removed provisions that would have limited districts’ ability to place emergency levies on the ballot or renew levies at increased millage, reconfigured how certain types of levies are factored into tax rates and allowed county budget commissions to unilaterally reduce the millage of voter-approved school levy funds.
“I was concerned that imposing [these provisions] now, all of them at once, on our local schools would create a huge, huge problem, and none of them guaranteed what we would end up with,” Gov. DeWine said during a press release Tuesday, July 1.
In a written statement to the News this week, school board President Rebecca Potter and school board member Dorothée Bouquet wrote that they were “relieved and grateful” that the provisions had been vetoed.
“These vetoes protect Yellow Springs Schools from immediate and significant financial harm and preserve our ability to pay our teachers and plan responsibly,” they wrote.
They also thanked local residents who contacted legislators and the governor’s office to speak out against the proposed measures.
“Your advocacy mattered,” they wrote. “We are especially grateful to the Yellow Springs Village Council for joining us in calling for a fairer budget.”
The statement went on to note that the district is “not yet out of the woods,” as the Legislature could still override the governor’s vetoes, as it has done several times over the last few years. The Columbus Dispatch reported this week that some Republican lawmakers in the state have already expressed support for overriding some of the line-item vetoes, including those that would make changes to property taxes. Overriding vetoes would require a three-fifths vote of both the House and Senate, which are currently in summer recess.
The budget still falls short of fully funding the Fair School Funding Plan by about $2.5 billion, according to the plan’s state advocates. It also continues to push taxpayer dollars to nonpublic charter schools, though Gov. DeWine did veto a provision that would have funded tuition for nonchartered private schools.
“This budget continues to send hundreds of millions of public dollars to private schools. Meanwhile, public schools across Ohio are increasingly asked to rely on local funding, and continue to be forced to do more with less,” the statement from Potter and Bouquet reads. “Remarkably, the state found funding for a professional football stadium while the full Fair School Funding Plan remains unfulfilled.”
They added: “We will keep advocating for a state budget that reflects equity, transparency and long-term investment in all Ohio students through public education. That won’t change.”
Ohio Housing Trust Fund preserved
In another critical development, the final budget preserves the Ohio Housing Trust Fund, or OHTF — a program that local nonprofit YS Home, Inc. has called “one of the only governmental resources available for smaller rental projects.”
The budget, as originally written, would have eliminated the requirement that counties contribute 50% of county recorder fees to the OHTF. That change, YS Home, Inc. Executive Director Emily Seibel told the News in May, would have effectively gutted the state’s largest source of flexible affordable housing dollars.
Seibel, who testified against the provision before Senate committees in May and June, told the News this week that the preservation of the OHTF is a “major win” — one she said she believes was made possible by local advocacy.
“Without a doubt, this is the direct result of advocacy efforts, and the community really showed up,” Seibel told the News. “I don’t know that the outcome would have been the same without [that advocacy]. … We should definitely pause to celebrate, and YS Home, Inc. is incredibly grateful to the community for all of its support.”
The OHTF has supported Home, Inc. with more than $2.5 million in past grants, including $1.5 million for the first phase of the 22-unit Cascades rental project, the construction of which is now nearing completion between Herman and Marshall streets. The nonprofit hopes to apply for an additional $1.4 million this summer to fund the next phase — an application that would have been dead in the water if the fund had been dismantled.
“This is a critical win for Yellow Springs — but it also helps so many important initiatives around the state,” Seibel said.
The preservation of the OHTF comes alongside other housing-related wins in the budget, including a $45 million annual allocation to the Welcome Home Ohio program. The program, expanded in this budget, now includes nonprofit community development corporations like Home, Inc. as eligible grantees, offering up to $100,000 per unit for affordable homeownership development.
YS Home, Inc. also recently secured a separate $75,000 Housing and Urban Development Capacity Building grant from Enterprise Community Partners, which will fund staff time, project predevelopment and staff training. Seibel said the grant comes “at the perfect time” for the nonprofit’s operations as it prepares for the next phase of The Cascades.
As they celebrate the good news, Seibel noted that affordable housing advocates in the state are shifting their focus to federal budget negotiations, where cuts to HUD and other affordable housing programs have been signaled. At the same time, she pointed out that the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, was recently kicked from the Federal grant website, allowing some previously approved funding streams to reopen without vetting from DOGE.
“We’ve got to take every little, tiny victory we can and acknowledge and appreciate when we do get wins — even though we know there’s a lot more work to do,” Seibel said.
Ed. note: This reporter is married to a member of the YS Home, Inc. board and owns a home purchased through Home, Inc., and has a child who attends YS Schools.
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